In XCode, when you open files, you can alt-click on the file and it will open in the assistant editor, which is a secondary split view screen. Qt Creator also has very flexible split views, but you can only open files in the currently active editor. This results in having to click the split view in which you want to open the file in, and only then click the file itself. Qt Creator could also have this alt-clicking or some similar shortcut that results in the file being opened in the adjacent split view, if there is one. This would not change the default behavior, so those used to Creator's current split view could still open files as before.